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Wednesday, 11 December 2013

Christmas crafts

Obviously being in Dubai, there is not a massive Christmas vibe here. There is none of he build up that you usually get, no cold weather, no Christmas lights and decorations around, no scarves and wooly hats etc.

But this week William and I have been tying to gear up for Christmas. We are flying back to the uk to spend two weeks per the holidays with our families. First stop is Christmas at the Inlaws in South Devon. I believe grandma and grandad are getting ready for our arrival with coats and gloves etc on hand!

Last year while we were still living in the uk, William was spending 3 days a week with his childminder. She was awesome! I don't think I will ever forget her and the affect she had on him. She was so kind and patient and made such a huge effort with all the children she cared for. At chrisymas he came home with a massive bag of goodies. Including homemade cookies and decorations.

So I have attempted to do the same with him again this year and to make a bag of

Little treasures to take back to the Gilbert family for Christmas. Now William will be two in a few weeks so probably doesn't remember much of Christmas last year. So it will be fun introducing him to the Christmas tree again! Here are a few of the decorations we have made to far. All made using paper, glue and a splash of glitter!

First up, giant baubles! I cut out large circles out of card and let William decorate them as he wished. This mainly included scribbling and colouring and gluing in glitter! I also helped a bit by adding some designs with a sharpy pen. I also cut up bits of paper that William had already painted and used them to make nice shapes on the baubles. One of the items grana bought him a few weeks ago was some foam shapes so we at together, sticking them on too. He found this very fiddly ad sometimes got frustrated when they kept getting stuck to his fingers but it was a good activity for his fine motor skills.

Use a hole punch to string ribbon through and voila! We decorated both sides of the card incase it spins around wherever it is hung.

This next decoration is probably my favourite thig we have made together. As William can't use scissors yet this required quite a lot of help from me. Firstly I gave him some paints to paint some plain paper. He used a sponge for most of it which produced a nice delicate effect. (He then tried using a paint brush and splodged it on in a very boyish manner!) Once it was dry he also used some stamps that he was given by his great Aunty Beverley. It was a set with a snowman, Christmas tree, bauble and star and he absolutely loves using them!

Next step was for me cut circles out of the paper and back them onto some red card. I pouched a hole in the top of each one. William then went mental with a glue stick and we sprinkled glitter on them, I think this is his favourite part! I crocheted a chain of red yarn, 15 chains inbetween each bauble and did a single crochet into each hole of the baubles. I left a tail at either end to hang them up. If you cannot crochet then a piece of ribbon to string them on would do nicely!

Today we tried snow flakes!

There are loads of patterns on the Internet or on Pinterest at the moment for these. We kinda just did random ones as William wanted to try and help cut. These are great with older kids but William enjoyed decorating the paper with glitter first, watching and waiting to see the final snow flake shape as it is opened up! I even started to get excited to see if our random snipping had made anything nice!

I have no idea if these will survive the flight back to the uk but it was fun making them!

We have less than two weeks before we start the horrendous journey back to the uk but am really looking forward to it. We haven't seen most of our family in 4 months so it will be great. I have done grown up crafting to post about soon and probably more of Williams art work too!

About Me

Hi, I'm Charlotte and I am currently living in Dubai, UAE, with my husband and son William.
I love exploring Dubai with my family, it's an amazing place! I also enjoy arts and crafts, sewing, crochet and having fun with my son.
Please leave comments, its really encouraging to hear from you all!